It's such a lovely, catty remark – you can just catch the sharp claws peeping out from the velvet paws.

Collins tells her own story in this two-part Radio 2 series. It starts off in England in the war when she was a child, picking up shrapnel and putting it in a cigar box (that was fun), then being evacuated to Bognor Regis or Brighton.

She was the antithesis of the fair English rose – the press dubbed her the “coffee bar Jezebel” for her sultry looks and “bad girl” roles.

She left Rada at 17 for the bright lights of Hollywood.

She dated Warren Beatty and acted with Bette Davis who was even more terrifying than she expected, she confessed.

What she wouldn't want is to ever be boring, she said.

She had a house in Japan, Rome, Hollywood ... so much glamour, money and exciting times.

There was lots of archive footage and a clatter of famous voices – a velvet voiced Roger Moore drawls that he's know Joan for 60 years: “We always called her J C.”

The second part in this Radio 2 series featured her big comeback as Alexis in Dynasty – all tower block high shoulder pads and smouldering bad woman looks. She based her character on Donald Trump as he was “a feisty go-ahead businessman” back then.